Columns: Keeping the Game Solid

ArenaNet has promised a lot with Guild Wars 2. So far it seems like they are keeping their promises and will be offering us an amazing game that will change the way companies think about making MMOs. But what about the future of the game? They will surely have expansions and large patches that will add more content. If they aren’t careful, they could ruin what could be an ever growing masterpiece. So let’s take a look at three of the smaller things ArenaNet can do to keep their game going strong, through the use of words and some silly sketches. Enjoy.

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When a game gets a major update it is either a large patch or an expansion that comes with a lot more content, which means new enemies. In the original Guild Wars campaigns, the story took place in different parts of the world, each with its own environment and new enemies. There were a few types of creatures that would be seen in multiple campaigns, but in many games they will just take a good bit of old creatures and change their color scheme, add a new thing or two to the model and call it new content. This is unacceptable in my opinion.

I quit playing games that shows no effort in keeping the player interested in the story or the world, although I know that sometimes due to budget cuts and tight deadlines, concept artists are ordered to do this. It sucks, I’ve been there, but I would like to see this be avoided for Guild Wars 2. They’ve built such a large and expansive world, just reusing the same creatures over and over again will only break its majestic quality. They did a decent job in the original game, so let’s hope they continue to do so for the next one.

It sucks, but companies make us do this kind of stuff.

Guild Wars 2 has a huge advantage over the original game for adding content, because it uses races. Before, there was just a nice selection of classes to choose from, with each expansion offering 2 new classes. Now they’re offering us the chance to be in someone else’s shoes. A nice way that they can add more content to the game is if they were to add some new playable races to the game. There are a lot places on Tyria that we haven’t had the chance to see, and that means that there’s a good possibility that there are indeed other races out there, races that they can let us play. It would even be alright if the story went in a direction, allowing us to play as a minor race that we’ve already seen. The main reason I like this is because it adds more variety. I feel the game has enough now, but I would like to see one or two races added here or there to add to that variety as the game’s world grows larger.

Who wouldn’t want to be a Tengu Warrior?

Now, in order for Arena Net to do a new race justice, they would have to have their own starting area as well as their own storyline, like the other races have. This means that even one new race would add a whole bunch of new content, so we would probably only see this type of addition in a full expansion. In my opinion that would work out great. I would love to see an expansion go to an area of Tyria we have never seen before, with the offering of a new race. To me, that’s the best way for an expansion to truly add a large amount of new content and keep a race from feeling like it was rushed during development.

I don’t know about you, but I love the costumes in the original Guild Wars. They allow players to mess around with their appearance, without hurting their stats. Every time I log in, I see tons of people wearing all the different costumes, changing their appearance with different armor, and really having fun with customizations. We already get to do that with Guild Wars 2, but what’s so nice about these costumes is that they are a bit more on the crazy side. You get to look like one of the Gods, or some type of demon creature from the Underworld. This whole concept was a huge success in the first game, because it just added that crazy over the top feel to our characters. Sure, it’s not really a lot of content, but it’s one of those small things that goes a long way.

I don’t care if it makes us look Godly, or goofy, please keep those costumes coming!

What I’ve mentioned today are only a small number of things Arena Net can keep an eye on to make sure that their game’s future content stays just as strong as it’s core content. Who knows, maybe they’re already tackling these issues. Judging from the previous Guild Wars campaigns, I think they will do all right.

Is there anything else you think they can keep in mind to ensure that their game keeps a consistent quality? Leave your comments below and get some discussion stared.

David North /
All my life I've been a gamer, from side scrolling adventures to shooters, it was only a mater of time before the RPG genre would grab a hold of me. My love for games grew so much that I started to make them. It grew even more, and now I also write about them.